


the wolf-man

by TheTartWitch



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Gen, Red Riding Hood Elements, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-04-01 03:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13989387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTartWitch/pseuds/TheTartWitch
Summary: Red trusts the village's wolf-man with her life.





	the wolf-man

When she was a little girl, still young and quiet and near obedient of her elders, there was a wolf-man in her village. The villagers were the old sort, eager to poke fun and laugh behind their hands but still liable to leave gifts of meat, bread, or bedding at his doorstep as the full moon approached. She would visit him sometimes, the nights before he’d become the wolf and go hunting. She knew these were the nights where he’d be closest to the wolf, but wouldn’t hurt her.

“What is it like?” She asked each time, curious. “To be something else?”

He would look at her, blank-faced and tending a fire of some sort, always. “It forgets nothing. Every old grudge, every agony, every hurt; the wolf always remembers, and it always wants repayment in blood.”

She supposed answers like that were meant to scare her away. They never did; she returned with the rising of the moon’s fullest, palest face with new questions and renewed curiosity.

\--

When she was twelve, the moon rose red in the sky above the wolf-man’s hut. When she went to visit him, he was ready.

“Come visit me tomorrow, Little Red,” he said to her, “Tell no one. I have a surprise for you.”

She was her mother’s daughter; cautious of older men, and wary of anyone asking to meet her late at night with none around, but this was the wolf-man. He was almost her father in a way, how he’d sit through her company and questions and smile his small smile whenever she laughed. He wouldn’t hurt her too badly, she thought, and so the next night she went. 

\--

When she was only eight years old, thieves came to the village claiming to be holy men. Their silver armor clanked about as they moved, and their crossbows and arrows aimed themselves at the village’s men and youngest children. They threatened the wolf-man, calling him sinful and demonic, and Red’s heart lifted to hear the vitriol the villagers spewed at these liars. The wolf-man protected their sheep and cattle from thieves, guided lost children back to their homes in the night, and kept rival wolf-men from settling in the village when they would eat and hunt the villagers. To hear him and his line mocked by these outsiders was enraging, no matter that the villagers said nearly the same, if not so bad. 

The wolf-man returned to the village the next day to the scent of blood and the loss of many villagers. The bandits had been driven out, but at a great cost. Red’s father had attacked the lead bandit’s guard, and her mother had stepped in the way of an errant arrow. Red had only her grandmother left. 

She had seen the wolf-man’s face ripple like water as his wolf fought to the surface but he didn’t lose control. He helped them rebuild their homes and put out the fires before heading to his hut for the night.

\--

She goes out the next night to the hay bale field to wait. He’ll come as a wolf or not at all, she thinks. He isn’t going to kill her, though. They have festivals for that sort of thing, and it’s always a terrible criminal, like Fiore’s brother Ket who’d murdered three pregnant women before getting caught and sentenced to wolf-man bite. She’d gone to visit him in the cells before he’d died. He’d lain on the packed dirt and grass in agony, crying and shouting about the women he’d killed. His bite had been an ugly bloodshot red and bleeding black pus into the cell’s floor. When he finally died, they celebrated into the night.

When the wolf-man comes, he is a wolf complete. She smiles at him; he could have killed her without her even realizing. Now she has seen him; now she could scream, and call the village on his head. No. She is not going to die today.

“Hello again,” she says to him, and steps closer. He is dressed in fur with eyes like a cat’s, all big and slitted and brown. She tugs her hood tighter around herself, feeling the nip of the night wind for a moment before she warms again. “You’re very handsome this way, you know? Such thick fur, and eyes like coals.”

[ _ You came _ ,] he says, his mouth opening in a huff of steam. She smiles. 

“Of course. I trust you not to betray me.” The wolf-man has not ever harmed a villager who was loyal to the village and good of conscience. She has nothing to fear.

[ _ You trust a wolf? _ ] He laughs at her. It is a curious sound, one she has not ever heard the man make. Perhaps it is only the wolf who laughs.

“I trust this one. I trust you with my care until the day I harm this village,” she tells him. Something deep inside tells her she must.

[ _ And perhaps beyond, _ ] he says to her quietly. 

**Author's Note:**

> red is not doing nasty things with the wolf-man.   
> don't know how good this is, was just sort of a writing exercise through how red's world might have operated, like "better the devil you know" with the village wolf-man, and the attitude towards people trying to kill their wolf-man and open them up to unwelcome invasions from others. i dunno.  
> let me know your thoughts?


End file.
